Senator Roxas remember the Philippines was the only Asian country to send troops to defend South Korea during the Korean War. Korean pro-democracy students sought refuge in the country when their country was in turmoil.The Historic alliance and long friendship between the two countries should be nurtured and maintain make full use of diplomatic channels to resolve the concerns of Korean nationals staying in the country," .In the Philippines Korean restaurants,stores ,students are also being tutored or are enrolled in schools . The immense contributions of Filipino workers to the Korean economy. These are signs of a mutually beneficial bilateral relationship.

The thing is native English teachers possess a skill set that is impossible for Korean workers to re-produce, namely being native speakers and are thus no competition to Korean workers. Filipino English teachers on the other hand, having learned English as a second language in much the same way that Korean English teachers have, don't bring anything (at least theoretically, in practice it is probably different) except the ability to undercut the wages of Korean workers in what is already a fairly competitive market.

There was a Filipino working at my uni a while back. Nice person-terrible english. If more come, it will make us look better. No offence to Filipinos personally as I have been to the Phil 3 times and love it, but their english is not at the level it needs to be for them to really affect the working climate here. They would make less than us but Korea is becoming affluent rather quickly and most parents would never want anything but the best for their kids-even if that means teachers like us...lol But serisouly, being white (sadly this is true...even Asian Canadians for example are discriminated more than white people, even though they are just as Canadian as I am, when it comes to looking for work...hate discrimination but it is what it is) and from an english first speaking country is what Koreans want. I have no problem with anyone coming here to teach but it just will not happen for the most part. Good luck to all!

Humility aside, I work at the Public School/s for several months now. I find it to have no difference at all. Natives are natives, Filipinos are also foreigners who can teach. Accent wise, it might be different... But it doesnt count that much~ at least with some other hagowns, Public Schools or Universities.

Generally speaking, personality counts best and how your deal with your work that will sustain you there. There are alot of changes nowadays and even the choice of employing Fil teachers are slowly being preferred.

Let's be happy we got our jobs and let's keep it. No sourgrapings, no stereotypings, no discriminations, no racism among foreigner teachers, instead supporting each other will help us become stronger as teachers..

That post says it all really. You obviously have a very high level of English proficiency but there are so many small errors that a native speakers would never make. That's why non-native speaking language teachers can never fill the unique niche that native language teachers have. This is why it seems to me that if Filipino teachers do come here they will be competing with Korean English teachers and driving down wages which is why I am doubtful it will ever be allowed.

I just can't see the gov't opening up the flood gates to allow Filipinos and Indians or whomever to come here and teach. They really don't even want the group of seven and the only reason why schools hire us is because they must at the university level (1st and 2nd year compulsary required classes) and ever more sinister; grant money. We cost the schools very little, if anything. hiring Filipinos and paying them less equals less grant money and it's hard to skim off the top with a lowered grant bar.

Another thing people forget about is the fact that it makes no difference who you are; Canadian, Filipino, Indian, living in Korea costs money, I'm fairly frugal but I think it takes me a bare million a month minimum to live. This is with a paid for apt. also. Even a small one room has to be 400+/month. I just don't think you could live any cheaper than that whomever you are. I'm sure these teachers would be making a million a month or somewhat in that area(1.0-1.2). That leaves little to send home to Cebu.

i really don't think this issue has anything to do with racism. a filipino, with a proper visa and qualifications, CAN obtain a legal teaching job in korea. however, because they are not native speakers of the english language, they are not going to be compensated with the same figures. possibly the same as a korean english teacher, but not as much as a native.

a work visa, excluding f-types, is very difficult to obtain unless you have specific qualifications in this country. to subjectively say, 'i am a good english speaker' and to be given a visa to teach english in this country really doesn't make any sense at all. thats like me, born and raised in the u.s. but fluent in korean, be given a visa in a foreign country to teach hangeul, just by saying i know the language.

there's a reason why in order to obtain an e2 visa, you must be a passport holding citizen and have graduated from a university in the u.s., canada, australia, the u.k., new zealand, south africa, or ireland. please correct me if i missed one.

as for qualified, filipino f2's, they are free to attempt at landing any job in the country that they please.

I know someone from the Philippines who has an F2 and is working in an elementary school. If they have an F2 visa they can apply for any job they want, it depends on whether or not the school wants to hire them. This particular person has an MA (TESOL) and is fluent in English, Korean and Tagalog. So, actually I'd say she's more qualified to teach elementary school than some BA, no teaching qualifications, no experience, can only speak English whitey just off the boat. Also, the quality of some of the posts by native speakers on here makes you wonder whether their English skills are good enough to teach English.

I find that many native teachers that come here are sure excellent in English and better than non natives because its their mother tongue but then knowing something is not about teaching the same.most of the teachers have done everything in their home countries except teaching.

Those with good qualification and teaching abilities must have a chance to participate in the selection process whatever nationality it may be.If you prove yourself you go further or else not.

I see many post like -a white native ,a north american wanted and so so.............the discrimination is not bound to Asians or non natives but also with native speakers.Does white skin color makes u a good teacher..........I dont think so........

But you're also letting your anti-whiteyness obscure the fact that no foreigner is a full-on teacher in a public school. We're all teacher's assistants. That one case is all well and true but where's her degree from (no disrespect intended, just a point)? I always see people ragging on the quality of Korea's universities and that obtaining a Master's here is less than ideal for jobs outside of Korea. What does that make, what I'm assuming is, a degree from a Filipino university? I'd wager that the Europeans, especially Germans and Swiss that I've met speak English as fluent as if not better than the average Filipino Why not let them come here, too? How about Mexicans or any other Latin American country?

I think looking at someone's Internet posts as a measure of their teaching ability is very, very ignorant.

I'm not anti-whitey. I'm anti-native speaker who doesn't have any teaching qualifications.

Her MA is from a Korean university and she's working in Korea, so does that cut the mustard.

You argument about Germans, Swiss, etc. is basically about any non-Korean person. If they have the English skills and teaching qualifications, why not? It should be up to the organisation hiring them.

The policy that a native speaker of English with any Bachelor's degree is qualified to teach is flawed. The Talk program in which people who are studying for a degree can come and teach here is also a joke.

I didn't say that internet posts were a reflection of teaching ability. I said that internet posts were a reflection of English skill. The argument on here is that Filipino people can't speak English well enough. However, some posts by native speakers suggest they might not have the skills either.

Native speakers are hired for the fact they are, well, native speakers not necessarily their teaching qualifications (if any) or teaching skills. So, if they don't have any teaching qualifications and they also can't write properly, then why are they being hired.

As a non-teacher and totally incapable of producing a fluid sentence without decimating the concept of grammar, I was astounded to read some of the threads from supposedly well educated individuals with years of university education, and who are supposed to be here in Korea teaching the same subject to students.

There seems to be a distinct lack of the most basic grasp of the concepts of correct use of plurals, sentences starting with lower case letters, incorrect punctuation, no logical thought, mixing present and past tenses and an apparent inability to form the most basic thought processes and translate this into the written word.

I am assuming that these are the same individuals who claim to have a higher ability to understand and teach this topic by virtue of their geographical educational location, and are the same ones demanding the right to 50 or 60,000 won per hour for their skills.

Come on guys, you wish to extol the virtues of a foreign education as superior to that of the Asians, for heaven's sake, proof read what you write.

I do get what you're saying here. However, asides from public schools, English education in Korea is a business. White faces attract parents...which is money. That being said, I don't think it's about white or yellow or black or blue being better teachers, but a better marketing tool for the Director of respective hagwon.

I think at every level here it's business; gov't school, public, private uni/college and hogwan. Our university has over 30 teachers, all of them but two are white. Koreans think that white people are competent and that's good enough for them. They are slow to change. They should be able to hire whomever they want and I'm going to lecture them on why they should hire someone they don't even if it is a racial issue.

don't get me wrong. i'm a yellow faced gyopo myself. if i were in charge of making decisions for any english education establishment in korea, and the number of students that enroll was the priority agenda, i would do the same thing. not to say it's the right way...but hey...it's just business.

Ahh LBS, if only it were so. Us foreigners these days don't do as well as we used to, my expenses no longer even stretch to a good meal these days.

To be perfectly frank with most of the threads here, I really understand what the feelings are, and why. We ( the marine industry ) went through the same series of emotions and thoughts many years ago, all over the world. Salaries decimated, jobs lost, movement from country to country looking for the old days.

Disbelief that anyone could consider we were replaceable, after all, we had high level western world qualifications, we had the jobs, we had the skills required, we had the knowledge.

Frustration, that although we had all of the above, our place in the world was being eroded by cheap labour, even though that cheap labour had the same qualifications and were slowly but surely bringing salaries down.

Anger, that nothing could be done to prevent the slide.

LBS, I mentioned before that education is an industry, the same as any other, with ''supply and demand'' determining market value. I agree that in the better days, a western face may have been the only acceptable face to the Koreans. Maybe it still does in Hagwons, I don't profess to have enough knowledge to make a comment.

Now, it comes down to dollars and cents. A college or school needs to fill a teaching post. It needs a teacher with qualifications, and the ability to teach. Doesn't need a white face, doesn't need an (insert your country here) accent, just an individual to fill the post.

Yes I also agree that perhaps, people like yourself have managed to get a niche position, where you with your predominantly foreign band of brothers, can manipulate the system to your advantage.

Believe me it is changing, with a speed that will frighten you. Korea is coming of age, and with it, new ideals on the needs of expensive foreigners trying to enforce western ideals on a nation that doesn't want them.

Can you visualize an Indian or Philippino teaching homosexuality and gay rights to students?

Foreigners ask for too much, and demand too much, for a nation that is still not quite ready to embrace the modern western world.

Me, I am a Project Manager for drill ships, value between 750 million and 2 billion dollars each.

Yes, I have a good salary, in fact I have an obscenely high salary for what I do.

I'm still needed here in Asia because of my skills base and the fact that I am in a niche market. Come the day that I can be replaced with an Asian with equal skills, I am history, the same as all other higher paid foreign employees.

Get used to it, get ready for the transition from hot kitchen to somewhere where it ain't so hot.

Hal....I am an old timer also and I respect what you say but it isn't going to happen. Koreans can only handle white people teaching their kids and that's the end of the story. I've been waiting 15 years for the Filipinos and Indians and whomever to come and take my job from me.

Really, this thread is as old as that. I heard about this 1995 and still hasn't happened, It will never will and why? because Koreans are well off enough to have white slaves, not black. Plus, have you ever dealt with Korean mothers? well let me tell you....there is no way they want their precious little Ju-me learining English from a person who is darker than they are or from a poorer country. I didn't make the rules, I just play the game.

Dear Kavi, show me a link or show me the program details but unless you have proof I'm going to concider this rumor control central.. http://www.epik.go.kr/ has no word of this anywhere on it's website. You'd think they would, wouldn't you?

More things change the more they stay the same Hal, out with the old in with the old. That's Korea motto.

In regards to the ad. People that shop for cheaper teachers are not loyal either Hal and personally my wife who runs a schools and myself have no time for such people, They say silly stuff like 'we've had many foreigners at 25,000w.class' Exactly and that's why you are looking for one now? My privates that have lasted the longest are also the most expensive ones. The cheaper ones has all gone by the roadside. English education is no different than buying any product in the free market. You buy cheap shit that's exactly what you get.

These people probably have a saturation problem of too many hogwans in the same area fighting for the same 300kids, not that the foreign teacher is too expensive.